:active, use it damn it…

After reading a few books on usability I had an “ah ha” moment. We spend so much time trying to make our websites and applications usable, yet so many of us (myself included) forget about functionality that is built into CSS that has the opportunity to enhance both the user experience and creativity of our sites.

What I am talking about is the ‘:active’ selector for links. An important aspect of usability is getting feedback on the interactions that we have. Feedback lets us know if the action we have taken was successful or not, and this would include clicking on links or buttons.